Don't forget me
by MarySae
Summary: [Sonic & Tails brotherly] What do you do, if you can't help your best friend, your brother? Are you going desperate? Do you deny the truth? Or do you trust your own memories? Live the life you deserve.


_Hello there! :D_

_Here comes another Sonic Short Story! ;)_

_The idea to this story won't leave me alone, so I wrote it in a couple of hours. (Translating cost me nearly two days…)_

_Don't know what to say. I like the story, even if Sonic seems really OOC. O.o_

_But I like to torture him… *muhahaha*_

_Have fun reading!_

…

**Don't forget me**

Somehow it felt odd when I thought about it. On one side I could run all day without a goal or getting bored, needing a rest or wanting to do something different, but on the other side I loved days like this too. Warm sunbeams pierce through the dense tree crown above me, soft grass under my body, still being a little bit damp from the nightly rain shower, and the pleasant tranquility of just laying around. Constant moving and lying for hours. Two sides of a medal, but still both me. Really odd.

I sighted and slid down the tree a little lower. I really should break that habit. Every time this philosophizing. That was far too exhausting. And besides I was known as the one, whose head wasn't made for thinking. Even if that sounded like an insult, this thought made me smile. So far my head always got me out of the hook. And for everything else Tails was responsible.

And as far as I know he was just now fulfilling our shoptalk rate for this day. He wanted to stay in his workshop tinkering instead of going out with me and getting some fresh air. I really should drag him outside more often. This constant staying inside couldn't be healthy permanently.

I opened my eyes a little and was immediately greeted by the bright colors of the late spring. Summer was coming. The flowers would wither and the still fresh grass will lose the majority of its green color.

Just a few meters ahead of me our common home rose up against the blue sky. Even if it seemed harmless I knew exactly which surprises everyone has to expect, who as much as thought in getting in without permission. I grinned at the pure thought of it. Of course no one would pay for this action with his life. Tails thought of everything. The house was capable of differentiate if the intruder was a living being or a robot. With the latter we didn't have a problem in dealing with them a little bit harsher.

My gaze met the extension standing beside the main building. I could only see a little part of the building, but I noticed the gate was opened completely. A part of the red painted Tornado glittered in the sun. So that was his answer to "get a breath of fresh air"? I already heard him use this argument at our next discussion of this topic.

With a big grin on my face I closed my eyes again and listened to the tepid spring wind playing with the leaves close by. The forest was so peaceful, it was almost creepy. For far too long Eggman hasn't show himself and I didn't know if I should be happy about it or if I shouldn't trust this matter. But how should we know what the Doc was thinking? All we could do was waiting and enjoying our free time.

We could do everything. As long as Tails was by my side, I wouldn't doubt. Tails, my little brother. He became a big part of my life. A much bigger part than I could ever imagine. He WAS my life. Everything else got secondary.

My freedom: Doesn't matter.

My speed: Unimportant.

Money and fame: Completely irrelevant.

If he was feeling bad, I felt bad. If he was unhappy, I was unhappy. When he wasn't close by, everything was unimportant, until he came back. Tails changed me completely. He gave me something I never thought I needed it: love, friendship and the feeling of being home. It was my greatest happiness that I was able to meet him. And even if my life was totally changed by his presence, I wouldn't want to trade it for anything in the world.

Thanks to him I got so much more than I ever dreamed of.

He was my life.

A strident scream shot across the clearing and the rustle of the leaves became silent immediately. Before I knew what was happening I was already on my feet and ran as fast as I could towards the garage. My mind operated at full stretch. This voice…

It only lasted milliseconds until I jumped through the open gate and stopped suddenly.

Full panicked I looked around and after what seemed like ages I spotted him beside his desk. His body was doubled over in pain, sweat drops were on his forehead and one hand was clutched around the edge of the workbench, while he dug the other in his fur. Exactly where his heart was.

"Tails!"

Panic seized hold of me and my core cramped. Automatically my body moved in his direction, but he took a step back. I petrified instantly.

"No. Don't… come... closer…" He only gasped this words. His voice was so weak that I almost couldn't hear him, even if he was just two meters apart from me. His eyes were half closed and he hanged his head. Again and again he winced and every time he groaned in pain. It tore me apart.

"Tails! What is happening? You have to go to a doctor!" Just a second ago my mind was acute, but suddenly I couldn't get one clear thought. Fear chocked me. The fear to lose the most important person in my life.

"It's… no use." His body slumped further down and this time I throw myself at him to catch him, before he could hit the ground. Still panicked I pressed him firmly against me. Almost as if I could help him with just holding him as I could. His breath grew weaker with every second and his body cramped even more.

What was going on? What should I do?

"Tails!", I cried desperately and hugged him closely. Hold him. Hold on!

"So-nic." As best as he could he raised his head, until his light blue eyes met mine. I was horrified when I noticed, how the color slowly faded. No! "Be… strong. Please."

His words puzzled me. What did he mean? But when he suddenly raised his hand, all I wanted to do was screaming. It was… transparent. Only now I realized that his legs were only barely visible.

Tails was vanishing right before my eyes.

"You have to go to a hospital; immediately!" I took a stronger hold of him and wanted to pick him up when I felt the faint pressure of his hand on mine.

"No. Please. You've got... something else... to do." Desperately, I looked at him. Why doesn't he let me save him? Why?

"Tails, why?" My voice was quietly, fragile. Each word literally burned in my throat. I felt a pressure in my head.

"Forgive me, big bro. I… I love you. Will always… be with you. Please. Don't… forget me."

More and more of him vanished. The pressure in my arms faded with each endless second. No ... No! He couldn't...!

"Tails! No!" He gave me a last smile. It was exactly that smile he showed me the day we became friends. No, brothers. This smile said: Thank you for loving me.

And suddenly I was alone. A freezing cold surrounded my body, when all muscles slumped down. Somehow I seemed to manage to sit upright, because the expected impact on the ground never came. But all that didn't matter.

The weight, which just now pressed against my lap, disappeared. The warmth, I held in my arms, faded away and switched places with an icy coldness. The face, that smiled at me a second ago, didn't exist anymore. And I hadn't the slightest clue why all of that happened.

My body was numb. I felt absolutely nothing. It was like… I was dead. My reason to live vanished just now into thin air. He simply… disappeared.

"Tails…" I sobbed. Felt the tears on my cheeks. I was totally powerless. Everything lost its brightness. There was no reason to exist anymore.

A loud rumble forced me to look up. At first I decided to ignore it, but it grew too obtrusive after a while. I looked beside me. There, where the Tornado was standing. Tails airplane. His beloved…

My eyes widened in disbelieve as I noticed the change. The airplane suddenly looked… ancient! The loud red color, which Tails renewed just a few weeks ago, disappeared completely. Rust and dirt overlaid the up to now well-kept metal. Dents were pressed themselves in the surface as if by magic. All the modifications vanished, until it looked exactly like back then, when I crashed on Westside Island.

Back then before I met Tails.

"That can't be… true!", I gasped and looked hastily through the room. The pictures at the walls faded out, until they were completely gone. Tails workbench dissolved into thin air! And even the building were about to vanish! Like it has never existed.

The ground below me changed and until I noticed, what was going on, I sat on soft grass under a blue sky. The still mild spring wind blew me gently in my face.

"No, no, no!" Troublesomely I stood up and faltered trance-like back. There where just now the workshop had stood, now only an old, rusty plane stood in the middle of a meadow. That just couldn't be true!

I looked abruptly aside, but there, where our house should be standing, just a small, simple hut was visible.

Slowly it seeped into my mind. And this realization froze my insides. I couldn't even say if my heart was still beating. I couldn't feel it.

I lost everything. Everything and so much more. But why? What had happened? A nightmare! A true nightmare!

"Soniiic!" A loud scream sounded behind me and for a short moment my heart seemed to work again. I looked behind me and noticed a pink hedgehog that was waving while coming over to me.

"Amy!" I gasped. "Amy! Tails is…!" I faltered. Something wasn't right. Her clothes, they were…!

"Ahhh! You remembered my name! I can't believe it!" she squeaked happily and jumped gleefully up and down. Her orange colored skirt bounced with every movement. A red blush was on her face.

"Amy?"

"I know… It's been years ago, but I never got the chance to properly say thank you for saving my life!" I looked puzzled at her. "You know. Back than at Little Planet! I wanted to thank you for so long!" Her shy smile felt wrong. That wasn't her! That wasn't the Amy I know!

"I…" I gulped without the slightest idea what I should do ort say.

"Oh, did I disturb you?" She tilted her head and pressed her arms closer to her chest. It was only then that I noticed the little piece of paper and the pen she pressed firmly against her body. "I really don't want to annoy you, but I hoped that… Maybe you could…?" With a crimson-faced head she suddenly stretched her arms out and hold the paper and the pen out to me. Ashamed she looked to the ground. Her right foot drew circles into the earth. "I know… Usually you don't sign autographs, but I thought… Please?"

Without even thinking about it I took the pen and stared at it for several minutes. The realization sank deeper and deeper into my head. Each second it became clearer to me. I had lost more than I had realized.

I didn't understand what I was doing, when the happy yell of the Amy, who once was one my best friends, brought me back to reality. The paper in her hands was now filled with my name.

"Oh, thank you, thank you! Can't wait to show this to my friends!" She smiled, bowed before me and disappeared between the trees.

They all left me. I never became friends with Amy. And probably it was the same with the others. Knuckles, Vanilla and Cream, the Chaotix, Shadow, Silver and Blaze. And neither with… Tails.

All kinds of feelings washed over me. I never met Tails. Never got to know him. We never became brothers. Our lives never touched. He would never smile at me again.

That I was running I didn't notice until I left the hill far behind me. My feet brought me forwards. Whereto I didn't know. And I didn't care either. I simply wanted to go away. My life crumbled within seconds. And the others forgot everything! Everything that happened! Our common life!

Or… Was I the one who was wrong? Was everything only a dream? Did Tails really exist? Had all our fights really happened? Happened all of this only in my mind? Right in this moment a strong pain flashed through my head. Everything went black for a few seconds and in the next moment I felt hitting the stone-hard forest floor. The pain in my head blazed up again and I could only suppress a scream with great effort. No, no, no! That wasn't a dream! It simply couldn't be one! Tails was real, I knew it! My brother _did _exist!

I jumped again onto my feet and I ran. I ran and ran. Without taking a break. I didn't stop. I stopped for no one that crossed my way. I didn't saw their faces. They didn't exist. Irrelevant. They… didn't matter. Everything didn't matter.

I didn't know how long I was running, when the salty smell of the ocean hit my nose. But I didn't slow down. Meanwhile I understood where my body guided me. I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Had to see _him_.

The water under my shoes splattered with every step and hit my face. But I didn't paid attention to it. Even the thought of not being fast enough and here – in the middle of the ocean – to drown, didn't scared me. A part of me even cried for death. The end. Everything precious to me didn't exist anymore. So why did I still do it?

It rained. That was the first, I noticed. Was I already on firm ground again? I didn't know it. I didn't notice that I entered the island. And yet it had to be, because I did not sink when I stopped for the first time in days. But at this moment I wished I had relented to the part of me that cried for death.

Now I was standing here. My legs led me here. Memories, which doesn't seemed to belong to me, even if they did, showed me this place. But still it was surreal. Simply not fair.

I collapsed to the ground. Finally gave my body the break it must be crying for ages. Here at this place. This cursed place.

I hold my shaking fingers out towards this nameless stone, which was carelessly rammed into the earth. Highly weathered and covered with plants. Numerous traces were indicative of the desecration of this little child's grave. Knocked out edges of the once smooth stone, rumpled earth and the worst of all were the big, nearly washed away letters spread over the surface._ FREAK_.

This time I couldn't fight the tears, when the pictures rain down on me. Didn't want it, through. It happened only a week after I landed on this island. My plane was already fixed by a specialist and I was ready to go, when I noticed this small red dot on the sand a few meters away from me. With a strange feeling in my stomach I walked over to him. And there he lay motionless on the ground. His eyes looked unseeing into the sky. A few last tears still glittered in the corner of his eyes. Some joints twisted oddly. Blood still seeped into the red-hot sand. I didn't even know his name.

My scream pierced through the forest when I remembered how I lifted this little, emaciated child and buried him. I could see his face clearly until it disappeared under the soil, too.

That wasn't a dream, no. Not even a nightmare. It was way too cruel for a nightmare. That was life. Death.

"_Forgive me, big bro. I… I love you. Will always… be with you. Please. Don't… forget me."_

I winced as I head his voice in my head. His last words, before all of this had happened.

No, I haven't imagined everything. I know Tails was real. My little brother. My world. Something happened, but I couldn't explain it. How should I do something if I don't even know what happened? How should I be able to fight against the fate?

I wish I could just turn back time to undo all of it!

"_Will always… be with you. Please. Don't… forget me."_

Suddenly and as fast that my joints protested with a loud crack, I rose to my feet. I hold on to this feeling. Clung firmly to it.

A small smile sneaked onto my face. Thanks, lil bro. Sorry it took me so long to understand. Sorry, I doubted it. You were the smart one all along. You knew it from the beginning, don't you? You knew it would happen sooner or later.

"I will save you. I promised you. Very soon you will be by my side again, I swear."

Drip, drop. Again and again, but the water didn't matter to me. My loss was bigger than my fear and disgust against the liquid.

He will pay for it. I won't forgive him… Never.

Faster and faster. My body protested. With every step it seemed to tear apart, but I didn't surrender. The life of my best friend was on the line. Thanks to him I was able to touch so many lives. Thanks to him my world was like a sun-drenched grassland instead of a cloud-covered sea.

"_Don't… forget me."_

Yes, you knew it. You knew exactly what was happening to you and you tried to tell me. Forgive me I didn't understand it at first. But I will make everything okay again. You deserve something different than this desecrated grave. You deserve to be loved.

Even at this place the rain dropped off the sky. I skidded into a halt just before this big, metallic building. The cameras hadn't detected me yet, but I would make sure they will. I will lay this laboratory in ashes, I promise…

My body moved and I thanked Chaos. Despite of the pain it was a simple matter to break the robots. He hadn't expected me. He must have thought that I had really forgotten him. But how could I?

I remembered. I do very well in fact. His plan hadn't worked.

"EGGMAN!", I cried, as I broke the door of his computer labor. I simply flew through it. A loud yelp sounded and a moment later the hum of several laser guns was in the air. The rage inside of me was burning. Hotter than everything I have ever felt. He would pay…

I felt the hatred infusing me. Devouring me. Grabbing my heart. And I couldn't fight against it. I didn't actually know if I really wanted to. I would end it. Here and now.

The robots disappeared before I could blink. Nothing more than shrapnel. Trash.

And there he was hunched up. Ahead of this big machine. This machine that destroyed my life. My life and my brothers, too.

"Eggman", I hissed and walked over to him. He shouted at me, searched desperately for an escape, but I knew he wouldn't find any. Just a few centimeters separated us, as I paused. He would pay, but not like this. I closed my eyes for a second.

"_Forgive me, big bro. I… I love you."_

I love you too, kiddo. More than you can imagine. I wish I had said it more often.

As my gazed touched my enemy again, I sensed how the hatred was suppressed by a warm glow. Again and again I heard his voice, saw his smile, felt his hugs. I won't let you down. Never.

The warmth spread in my body and I noticed how all the energy collected itself inside of me. I didn't have the chaos emeralds with me, but I wouldn't need them this time. This time it was my own strength that matters. And I would give all I've got.

A golden shine filled the room.

"Undo what you did to my brother!" I screamed in his face. "Go, make that Tails and I met back then! NOW! "

The next thing I saw was a rain-soaked forest. The winter was coming soon and the air was cold. I knew this place, knew, where I was. And nothing could make me happier. I counted the steps until I reached this place. I could remember every detail. The warmth inside of me now embraced my heart, when I saw them. A blue hedgehog and a orange colored fox kid. Soaked wet and chilled through. And on the hedgehogs face was a big smile.

"_What's your name?" This question seemed to surprise the fox. With a confused look he stared at the stranger._

"_Miles… Prower." Before he noticed himself he already said his name. "But I hate my name!" He added quickly._

…

"_Would you like to stay with me? Please be honest. Would you want to live with me? I always… wished for a… little brother."_

"_Are… are you… serious?"_

"_Of course! You know, Sonic the Hedgehog never lies!"_

"_Thanks! Thank you, Sonic! I… always wanted a big brother!"_

"_I would do everything for you, lil bro. Let's go home."_

I closed my eyes. Let myself sink into it. Enjoyed it. My memories. This was the moment I decided to like this little, helpless fox kit. At this moment I discovered a part of my heart, I didn't know before, and I wouldn't want to miss it ever again.

"Sonic." My heart jumped when that voice sounded. I opened my eyes again and noticed that I was back at Eggmans laboratory. He did already disappear, but at this moment it didn't matter.

I turned around slowly. As slowly as I didn't think I was capable of doing. Almost as if I was afraid that he would vanish when I moved too fast. It was like seeing him properly for the first time. His fur, a mix of orange and gold. His white ears. These incredible blue eyes, that sparkled like stars in the sky.

A young man that had his whole life before him.

"Hey, buddy." My voice was small, but I knew, he heard me. Tears washed over his eyes, yet still the smile didn't disappear from his face.

"Sorry I was taking so long." His voice shivered, when the tears of joy gained the upper hand and his whole body started trembling.

"I missed you, lil bro."

There it was again. His warmth. I hugged him close to me, careful not to hurt him. I had to constantly remind myself I was still in my super form and I could probably crush his body without great effort. But nevertheless this won't ever happen. I won't lose him again, no matter what it cost.

"Let's go home." I felt him nodding at my shoulder. But he didn't release me. And I won't release him too. I squeezed him stronger at my body and walked towards the destroyed door. For the last time I turned around and collected all of the available energy. I always keep my promises.

A blazing flash of light shot across the room and seconds later sounded a deafening bang. I embraced the fragile body of my friend and took us with a Chaos Control as far away as possible. Only when we stood on our hill again, I dissolved my super form and put the young fox carefully on the ground. Amazed, I looked at the spot the old hut and the rusty plane were standing not long ago, and I was more than relieved to see a familiar sight.

The picture of my life that was shattered on the ground just now, was now starting to put itself together. Bit by bit. And the biggest part was already complete again.

"What did you see?" Tails question surprised me.

"What do you mean?"

"I was… dead, am I right? Without you I didn't even exist anymore, did I?" The picture of the desecrated child's grave appeared before my inner eye again and I pulled him closer to me. Never again. Nevermore I would have to see those images again.

"Don't think about it, lil bro. That was a life that shouldn't have existed. We met and you are here now. Here with me. That's all that matters."

"I love you, big bro. And thank you."

"And I love you. A lot."

"SONIC! TAILS! I'm so glad you're okay!" Tails and I turned around. Tears glittered in Amys eyes. "I had a totally freaked out dream! Thank Chaos that wasn't real!"

Compared with the other times I really enjoyed her hug very much. The picture was composing again. Bit by bit.

Bit by bit.

And I would do everything to keep it from shattering again.

I will protect this life I was able to give with my whole being. We will both live the life we deserve.

"Come on, big bro! I just upgraded the Tornado! Let's go on a fly!" Cheerfully laugh. "I only hope it is really still there and didn't vanish mysteriously into thin air!"

…

_Thanks so much for your support!_

_I really appreciate it! :D_

_P.S.: The part of Sonic and Tails meeting is borrowed from my other Oneshot "How to trust someone"! ;) Just in case you are wondering... xD_


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